Sunday, February 5, 2012

Blog Post 2

DID YOU KNOW 3.0http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXVO0vccn5s
After watching this video, along with the original one by Fisch & McLeod,I couldn't help but to feel overwhelmed. Seriously, I had no idea that the population in India was so immense and advanced compared to the US. It brings me to feel an urgency for gaining technology fluency as I grow in experience as an educator. Although I'm not so sure how to prepare anyone for overnight fame due to an uploaded viral video the way Justin Beiber began his jump into stardom. The ability to share events and have conversations with people thousands of miles away, an ability never though possible before computer technology, is a tool with unlimited possibilities. I guess that is a starting place, by encouraging creativity where there is no right or wrong answer, only infinite imagination.

MR. WINKLE WAKES http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lm1sCsl2MQYToday there is a great deal of stress upon the outdated education practices here in our country. Schools remaining essentially the same for a hundred years........that just will NOT do! So I am now asking myself the question of how can I do something about this. But, how to prepare children today for jobs with technology not even invented yet? Poor Mr. Winkle has been asleep for a hundred years and wakes to a world that is alien to him. If there are so many advancements around him everywhere except the classroom, shouldn't that be a sign that the classroom is in fact working to some extent? If there are so many improvements in medicine and technology that means a person that excelled in the classroom then continued asking questions until an answer was found. I don't believe that our system of education is broken but there should be balance to allowing creativity flow and the testing of memorized facts with more emphasis on self discipline and strong moral work ethic.

THE IMPORTANCE OF CREATIVITY http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
School shouldn't be a place to pour facts into children's minds alone. There should be freedom for individual creativity to flourish as well. Sir Robinson believes that the arts should be stressed as strongly as the basics. He points out that each child is born with creative juices flowing free, such as a lack of fear to making mistakes, and through the education process this creativity is extinguished. Many children today are being labeled by the system as learning disabled or ADD/ADHD but the suggestion is to promote that hyperactive mind or uninterested student, which is not appropriate for the classroom, into a more hands on and creative inducing environment that includes all the students and not just the "gifted." Where does talent come into play? How can a creative mind continue to grow without exposure to the embarrassment which leads to giving up due to fear of making mistakes.
I love what he says, "if your not prepared to be wrong then you will never come up with anything original." I wish that idea was taught to me growing up, it is so eye opening! We don't want to appear stupid so we don't try, instead we should advocate that if you don't try how will you know what you are capable of.

A VISION FOR 21ST CENTURY LEARNINGhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mirxkzkxuf4&feature=relatedThis video discusses the system of education being based on mass standardized testing, cramming students heads with facts while sitting passively in a boring classroom. Emphasis is placed on encouraging the use of video games andcomputer software that is entertaining enough so that students don't even realize they are learning. This is a good idea, but these tools can be very expensive. Which is why there is little available to public schools today. Perhaps instead of pointing a finger at a weakness in the education system there was more of an effort to create ways of bringing these advantages to the classroom in an affordable way, such as the idea of the $2 white board in place of the $2000 smart board that is posted on a teacher blog by Frank Noschese. Visit his blog at: http://fnoschese.wordpress.com/HARNESS YOUR STUDENTS' DIGITAL SMARTS http://www.edutopia.org/digital-generation-teachers-vicki-davis-video
This video was a nice companion to Mr. Winkle Wakes. It is very overwhelming as a future educator to have the job of preparing the young of today for the future of which we can not see. Yes, it is our job to introduce information but ultimately it is the students place to apply that knowledge. We as educators can feel a little less overwhelmed by realizing that each person when given the opportunity is capable of creating pleasantly surprising outcomes. Vicky Davis, teacher-preneur, allows her students to "teach" her. By empowering her class she can teach them to be thinkers. This is such a beautiful idea, by having a student teach a lesson she is helping them to use their own thought processes and encourage self reliance. This is the direction that our country should be taking to educate tomorrow's leaders.

2 comments:

"Schools remaining essentially the same for a hundred years........that just will NOT do! So I am now asking myself the question of how can I do something about this. " That's one purpose of EDM310 - to get you to deal with that question.

"I don't believe that our system of education is broken..." You don't? Then explain the quote just above.

"School shouldn't be a place to pour facts into children's minds alone." Is there any place for "pour[ing] facts into children's minds"?

I think it's ironic that we're both assigned to each other this week but it's all going to be o.k.! First off, I want to thank you for telling me to come to your page and do this assignment. One of the reasons I hadn't done it until now is because I had already read over it and I didn't find much "wrong" if anything with your blog! You are so good at writing! So here I am now, trying my best to do this correctly.-I really like how easy it is to understand your writings! You In your comments regarding the video of Mr. Winkle, I agree with you in that our education system isn't necessarily broken. It has flaws in both sides (the instructors and the students). Not all instructors are professional educator's, then again, not all students are scholar's. Yes, there are gems out there, the people who strive to be successful academically and perform and drive themselves to be the next genius with the next greatest invention, but this technological movement needs to spread more rapidly and more people need to actually care about having a good quality education for this process to work. Public school systems are being managed on a level so specific that text books only teach what the government wants the public to know. I, personally, am not satisfied with just reading a textbook. If I find something interesting, i'll actually do some research on it from internet sources and such.You hit the nail right on the head when you said: "Yes, it is our job to introduce information but ultimately it is the students place to apply that knowledge. We as educators can feel a little less overwhelmed by realizing that each person when given the opportunity is capable of creating pleasantly surprising outcomes."